Report of

THE UNIVERSITY COMMISSION ON GONZAGA’S RESPONSE TO THE CATHOLIC SEXUAL ABUSE CRISIS

to

THE PRESIDENT OF GONZAGA UNIVERSITY

SPOKANE, WA Table of Contents

A Message from President McCulloh...... 4

Preface...... 6

• Document Overview ...... 9 • Reporting Sexual Abuse ...... 9 • Membership of the Commission...... 10

Introduction...... 15

• Establishing Context...... 16 • Engaging Community...... 21 • Forming Recommendations...... 24

Reflections on the Work...... 25

• The Complexity of the Commission’s Charge...... 26 • The Process...... 27 • The Desire for an Apology...... 28 • The Question of Investigation ...... 29 • Who Knew What When?...... 29 • The Question about Inclusion of Survivors...... 30 • Healing and Reconciliation...... 30

2 • Mission...... 31 • Introduction to the Recommendations of the Commission to the President...... 32

Recommendations to the President...... 34

• Academics...... 35 • Memorials and Liturgies...... 36 • Mission Identity ...... 37 • Policy and Procedure...... 38 • Tribal Relations...... 39

Appendix...... 42

• Timeline of the Commission...... 43

3 Letter from the President

September 1, 2021

Dear Members of the Gonzaga University Community: It is with deep gratitude that I share the final report of the University’s Commission on Gonzaga’s Response to the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis. In April 2019, I asked a dozen dedicated colleagues to engage in difficult conversations about what systematic abuse within the Church compels us – a Catholic university and an apostolic work of the at this time in our history – to learn, to know and to do. This document represents the culmination of more than 18 months of work, and contains clear and thoughtful recommendations about the actions our Catholic, Jesuit and humanistic university should undertake given the clergy abuse crisis within the Church, our own institutional experience, and our role as a learning community to advance healing, justice and reconciliation. On behalf of our entire University, I wish to express my deepest appreciation to the members of the Commission, and thank them for their commitment,

4 courage, and diligence throughout this project. I especially wish to thank Commission co-chairs Dr. Michelle Wheatley and Dr. Megan McCabe, for their leadership of this important effort. I am also grateful to the many members of the Gonzaga University community who participated with the Commission by providing input, perspective and thoughtful commentary. It is my belief that this report – and the recommendations contained within it – will guide our actions and future way forward as we demonstrate our solidarity with victim-survivors, deepen our understanding, and work together as community to repair broken trust and advance the apostolic and educational mission of Gonzaga University. Sincerely,

Thayne M. McCulloh, D.Phil. President

5 Preface

6 In April 2019, President Thayne McCulloh of Gonzaga University appointed a University Commission on Gonzaga’s Response to the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis. The Commission’s charge was to identify, discuss, and make recommendations to the president regarding a set of formal actions the University should undertake in light of the Catholic sexual abuse crisis and Gonzaga’s institutional experience of it. This Commission was formed and began meeting in May 2019. Over the next 13 months the group met 13 times as a whole, and convened in subcommittee meetings and other events to inform recommendations. The Commission held a two-day retreat in July 2019 to establish context and build trust among the group. It also hosted multiple listening sessions throughout fall 2019 to better understand the needs, hopes, and concerns of the Gonzaga University community. This report provides an overview of the Commission’s activities, reflections on its charge and work over the last year, and recommendations to the president about how the Gonzaga community should continue to face Catholic sexual abuse and make sense of its institutional experience. This report is modeled after and inspired by the Report of The Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation developed by 1. This report is intended to fulfill the charge of the Commission to provide recommendations to the president, and it concludes the Commission’s responsibilities. However, as is outlined in the section containing

1 “Report of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation to the President of Georgetown University,” Georgetown University website, Summer 2016, http://slavery.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/GU-WGSMR-Report-Web.pdf.

7 Recommendations to the President, the Commission considers this report the beginning of a new phase of work, including the launch of several working groups to continue advancing worthy, longer-term aspirations in accordance with the Commission’s mandate. This report also highlights good work already underway in the University, concurrent with the formation and activities of the Commission. Where possible, this document endeavors to shine light on those events and processes and explain how they connect to the work of the Commission. This report does not provide an exhaustive list, and the Commission invites the University community to continue creating as comprehensive a plan as possible.

8 Document Overview INTRODUCTION This section outlines the Commission’s activities between its introductory meeting in May 2019 and the submission of its report in August 2020.

REFLECTIONS ON THE WORK This section includes the Commission’s reflections on its journey, including commentary on the following topics: • The Complexity of the Commission’s Charge • The Process • The Desire for an Apology • The Question of Investigation • Who Knew What When? • The Question about Inclusion of Survivors • Healing and Reconciliation • Mission • Introduction to the Recommendations of the Commission to the President

RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE PRESIDENT This section contains the Commission’s recommendations to the president, in accordance with its charge.

APPENDIX The Appendix includes the Timeline of the Commission.

REPORTING SEXUAL ABUSE This report contains open, honest, and difficult reflections about sexual abuse. Throughout this process, the Commission has endeavored to maintain a strong commitment to survivors. If you would like to report abuse or seek out resources, both within the University and externally (including through the Jesuits West Province), please see www.gonzaga.edu/report.

9 MEMBERSHIP OF THE COMMISSION Co-Chairs Megan K. McCabe, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Dr. Megan McCabe works in the areas of Catholic moral theology, theological ethics, and feminist and liberation theologies. Her research and teaching respond to questions of human responsibility for suffering and the correlative duties to work for social transformation. Her current research focuses on sexual violence and its cultural foundations. She co-founded and co-led a Theology, Sexuality, and Justice interest group for the Catholic Theological Society of America, co-chairs the “Contextualizing the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis” Seminar for the American Academy of Religion, and co-led a task force for the Department of Religious Studies in response to Catholic sexual abuse in Spring 2019.

Michelle Wheatley, D.Min., Vice President for Mission and Ministry Dr. Michelle Wheatley serves as the mission officer for the University and leads the Mission and Ministry division. Her work focuses on the University’s identity and practice as a Sponsored Work of the Society of Jesus, which includes supporting the community in actively engaging and sharing responsibility for the fulfillment of Gonzaga’s Catholic, Jesuit, and humanistic mission. Her specific areas of interest include Ignatian approaches to leadership, community building, and organizational development.

10 Commission Members Fr. Tim Clancy, S.J., Ph.D. Fr. Tim Clancy, S.J. teaches at the intersection of the philosophy of religion and the philosophy of technology. He is also pastor of a small Catholic Parish, Our Lady of the Lake in Suncrest, . He brings to the work of the commission an interest in using religious ritual as a resource for moving beyond retribution and even restorative justice to the redemption of evils afflicting both victims and perpetrators.

Patrick McCormick, S.T.D. Dr. Patrick McCormick received his in Sacred Theology from the Gregorian University (Rome) and has taught Christian Ethics and Catholic Moral Theology at Gonzaga for 25 years. He is the author of five texts and dozens of articles on Christian Ethics and has served as Chair of the Religious Studies Department, the Flannery Chair and Faculty Director for Assessment.

Fernando Ortiz, Ph.D., ABPP Dr. Fernando Ortiz is the director of Counseling Services at Gonzaga University. He obtained his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Washington State University. He is a licensed psychologist in Washington State and board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology. He was a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops National Review Board (2013-2017).

Lindsay Panigeo Ms. Lindsay Panigeo began this work as a senior biology major and is now a Gonzaga graduate and proud Iñupiaq Alaskan. She has been an active member of the Center of American Indian Studies, known as “The House.” She has also participated in several on-campus programs, including Saturday Literacy Tutoring, Advocates 4 Social Justice, and the Zagathon Dance Marathon.

11 Steve Robinson, Esq. Mr. Steven D. Robinson is a partner at Karr Tuttle Campbell, a Seattle law firm. He received a BA from Gonzaga University in 1978 and a JD from the University of Idaho College of Law in 1982. Before entering private practice, Mr. Robinson served as an aide to Speaker of the House Thomas S. Foley. A 2013 graduate of the Northwest Institute for Dispute Resolution, Mr. Robinson is a certified civil mediator. He is a past President of the Seattle Chapter of the Gonzaga University Alumni Association, and a past Chair of the Gonzaga University Board of Regents.

Vince Salyers, Ed.D., RN, ANEF, FAAN Dr. Vince Salyers joined Gonzaga University in July of 2019 as the Dean of the School of Nursing & Human Physiology. He was drawn to participate on the Commission because he believes now is the time to move forward with healing, forgiveness and reconciliation. He believes it is critical that the hearts and minds of the Gonzaga community be prepared with wisdom, knowledge and revelation about how God would have us respond. He also hopes that his experience as a University leader, registered nurse, and as a man who strongly believes in a God who is just, merciful, compassionate and forgiving has contributed to the recommendations proposed by this Commission.

Jerri Shepard, Ed.D. Dr. Jerri Shepard graduated from the University of San Francisco with a degree in Counseling Psychology. She has demonstrated a long history of commitment to social justice and human rights at Gonzaga University, having served as the director of the Institute for Action Against Hate (Institute for Hate Studies) for five years. She teaches courses on Cultural Competence Development and Leadership in the School of Education at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. Dr. Shepard has presented workshops on Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention for over 20 years for educators throughout the state of Washington.

12 Ed Taylor, Ph.D. Dr. Ed Taylor is Dean and Vice Provost of Undergraduate Academic Affairs at the . He also serves as a member of Gonzaga’s Board of Trustees. A professor in the College of Education at the University of Washington, Dr. Taylor has worked with education leaders from the United States and South Africa. His areas of teaching and research center around the history of education, the social context of education, and critical and liberation theory in education. His most recent work centers truth, reconciliation and repair in education communities. He earned his undergraduate degrees at Gonzaga University and his doctoral degree at the University of Washington.

Wendy Thompson Ms. Wendy Thompson [Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes] is Gonzaga University’s Director of Tribal Relations. Ms. Thompson’s interest in the Commission is grounded in her tribal relations work with tribal communities who have been impacted by the clergy sex abuse crisis, which includes supporting Native students at Gonzaga who come from these communities. She has endeavored to bring the voices of these communities to this work.

Elizabeth Young, M.Sc. Ms. Elizabeth Young graduated from Gonzaga in 2015 and is currently a third-year medical student through the University of Washington School of Medicine-Gonzaga University Regional Health Partnership. Between her undergraduate work and medical school, she earned a Master of Science at King’s College London, during which she also completed additional work in ethics and theology. She was drawn to this work by a passion for healing, justice, and protection of the most vulnerable.

13 Administrative Support Cindy Perry Ms. Cindy Perry is the Assistant to the Vice President for Mission and Ministry. She has worked at Gonzaga University for 15 years, including 11 years in the University Ministry office before moving to the vice president’s office. She serves as the department’s budget officer, risk manager, Sacred Space manager, and as a liaison with many departments and organizations including St. Aloysius Church and the Diocese of Spokane. She also sits on the Catholic Cemetery Board.

Elizabeth Eckman Ms. Elizabeth Eckman earned her bachelor degree in religious studies and sociology with a minor in solidarity and social justice from Gonzaga University in 2020, working as a Commission note taker for the 2019-2020 academic year. She now is seeking her master of divinity degree at Yale Divinity School.

14 Introduction

15 The Commission members came together representing experience in litigation on both sides of clergy sexual abuse cases, truth and reconciliation work, tribal relations, childhood trauma, healing, moral theology, and more, including student, staff, faculty, alumni, and administrative perspectives. Their work fell into three primary phases: Establishing Context, Engaging Community, and Forming Recommendations. These phases are described in greater detail below.

ESTABLISHING CONTEXT As the Commission began its work, members identified the need for greater shared understanding among themselves, and among the larger Gonzaga University community, on the following points: Renewed Awareness of Abuse in the In August 2018, the results of an eighteen-month grand jury investigation into abuse in the Catholic church were released in a public report that quickly became commonly referred to as the “Pennsylvania Grand Jury report.” The report named over 300 priests with credible accusations who abused over several decades and outlined extensive protection for perpetrators, cover- up, and general failures to act on the part of official Catholic leadership. The Grand Jury report, along with revelations that then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had abused seminarians and minors for decades, reignited awareness, anger, and demands for change among the American public and members of the Catholic Church in the United States. While previous attention to abuse in the Church primarily focused on perpetrators, this wave of attention identified and confronted the systemic nature of the problem, with attention to patterns and systems that allowed for abuse to happen and continue. As a result, Catholic universities and scholarly societies, especially of theological and religious studies, began renewed efforts to diagnose the multi-dimensional problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and propose ways to deconstruct the foundations of such abuse and outline new ways forward.

16 Joining these efforts, President McCulloh released a communication2 in October 2018 outlining four institutional commitments in response to ongoing revelations about abuse in the Catholic Church:

First: Our commitment to the human dignity of every member of the community.

Second: The commitment of the Jesuits West Province, and the Diocese of Spokane, to zero tolerance for sexual misconduct.

Third: A commitment to equal access to education, and solidarity with victims of abuse and neglect.

Fourth: A call for us to engage these structural issues as a learning community. Given this renewed attention to realities of abuse in the Church, Jesuit provinces in the United States began to release lists of every credibly accused 3 Jesuit, starting with Jesuits West on December 7, 2018. While many of these names were already known, the release brought further attention to the intersection of the realities of Catholic sexual abuse with the Gonzaga community and the region. This increased awareness and scrutiny was further amplified when a Reveal Investigative Report called “Sins of the Fathers” was published on December 14, 2018. Shortly after, President McCulloh summarized the story in a communication to the University community: The account first focused on the horrifying, predatory sexual abuse of Alaska Native girls and women by James Poole, a Jesuit priest who worked at that time

2 McCulloh, Thayne, “Our Institutional Commitments in Light of Ongoing Revelations of Abuse in the Catholic Church,” October 2019, www.gonzaga.edu/about/president-leadership/messages-media/2018/ ongoing-revelations-of-abuse-in-the-catholic-church. 3 The term “credibly accused” does not have a universal meaning in the Catholic Church. Instead, its specific meaning is determined by each diocese or religious order. In the Jesuits West Province, “credibly accused” most closely aligns with the legal standard “preponderance of evidence” relied on in civil, not criminal, cases. Cases are determined by an independent board, including lay (non-ordained Catholic) membership, within each local diocese or province.

17 in Nome, Alaska; and then examined the ways in which the leadership of the Society of Jesus knowingly re-assigned men such as Poole — as well as numerous other men credibly accused of sexual abuse — to other locations within the Oregon Province, and sometimes to locations where they were again credibly accused of abusing children, women and men, and vulnerable adults. Through her research, the reporter further found that many men who were accused of sexual abuse were in their later years assigned to the retirement facility and Infirmary for the Oregon Province, Cardinal Bea House, located just west of St. Aloysius Church.4

The reporting was picked up by the Associated Press and received widespread attention among the Gonzaga community. Consequently, the University began contending with the realities of Catholic sexual abuse in new ways throughout 2019. President McCulloh announced the formation of a University Commission in April 2019, with the goal that the Commission would pick up on the fourth commitment offered in his October 2018 communication: “A call for us to engage these structural issues as a learning community. It seems to me that this present moment affords an opportunity for us, as a Catholic university, and as lay and religious colleagues, to engage courageously in difficult conversations about what systematic abuse within the Church compels us to learn, to know, and to do. As I shared in my reflection on Luke’s Gospel at the Mass of the Holy Spirit, I think that in this moment we too are ‘called to be apostles.’” 5

4 McCulloh, Thayne, “Statement from President McCulloh Regarding National News Story,” December 2019, https://www.gonzaga.edu/about/president-leadership/messages-media/2018/statement-from- president-mcculloh-regarding-national-news-story. 5 McCulloh, Thayne, “Our Institutional Commitments In Light of Ongoing Revelations of Abuse in the Catholic Church,” October 2019, https://www.gonzaga.edu/about/president-leadership/messages- media/2018/ongoing-revelations-of-abuse-in-the-catholic-church.

18 The Commission was tasked with guiding the University in joining the efforts of other Catholic institutions while also acknowledging that Gonzaga engages this endeavor from the particularities of its own history and context. As the Commission’s work on recommendations was coming to an end, a second story from Reveal called “Unrepentant” was made public on June 20, 2020. Following the release of this report, the Commission gathered for an otherwise unplanned meeting to wrestle with the content, reinvigorating the Commission’s commitment to its recommendations and underscoring the importance of this work. Relationship of the University to the Province Gonzaga University is a “Sponsored Work” of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), a religious order within the Catholic Church. The Jesuits have discerned that Sponsored Works meet three important criteria: 1) substantially contributing toward realizing the mission of the Society of Jesus, 2) manifesting Ignatian values (St. Ignatius Loyola was the founder of the Jesuits), and 3) bearing the name “Jesuit” with approval from the Society of Jesus.6

In 2010, the AJCU (Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities) expanded on this relational responsibility between the Society of Jesus and Jesuit Colleges and Universities. The AJCU affirmed that while each institution has its proper independence, it must also have a lived relationship with the Society of Jesus, primarily through its Provincial (regional leader), and its local Jesuit community. This relationship should be characterized by good and open communication, mutual listening and learning, committed partnership and collaboration, shared understanding of the Society’s current initiatives and apostolic emphases, and regular dialogue between the leadership of the university (including Trustees) and Jesuit leadership. 7

6 Decree 13: “Cooperation with the Laity in Mission,” General Congregation 34, 1995, https://jesuitportal. bc.edu/research/documents/1995_decree13gc34/, 11. 7 “The Jesuit, Catholic Mission of U.S. Jesuit Colleges and Universities,” Association of Jesuit Colleagues and Universities, January 2010, https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/documents/ TheJesuitCatholicMissionofJesuitCollegesandUniversities_PDF.pdf, 10.

19 The nuances of separation and integration between the University and the Society of Jesus became significant in the discernment of appropriate recommendations. The Beginning of the Commission The first meeting of the Commission began with a formal charging by the president, in which he reviewed the context outlined above that led to the formation of the group. To better understand this context, as well as the Gonzaga community’s experience of it, the Commission gathered for a two-day retreat in which invited members shared their experience of the University’s journey between August 2018-July 2019. Topics included: • The current Mission and Ministry landscape at Gonzaga University • Human Resources and Title IX policies and procedures • The University’s relationship with the Bea House property • Feedback from external constituents, including alumni, parents and families, and benefactors • Adopting a victim-facing approach in the Commission’s work • Tribal relations • Broader national and international work around Catholic sexual abuse: - The National Review Board 8 - The administration of safety plans 9 - Theological perspectives - Other university and professional society activities

8 The National Review Board is an independent, lay (non-ordained Catholics) advisory board organized by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to collaborate with the USCCB to prevent sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable populations in the Catholic Church. For more, see http://www.usccb. org/about/child-and-youth-protection/the-national-review-board.cfm. 9 A safety plan is a plan, developed through consultation with a licensed psychologist and implemented by a Catholic diocese or religious order, with restrictions according to which a cleric (priest or brother) who has been credibly accused of sexual abuse, but who has not been or cannot be criminally charged and imprisoned, lives.

20 Over time, the Commission incorporated additional opportunities for learning and listening on themes such as: • Legal standards for credible accusations • Models of inspiration for healing, truth, and reconciliation • The University’s approach to media relations and communication • The University’s archives • Identifying members of the Gonzaga community with perspectives and areas of expertise connected to the work of the Commission The time the Commission took to establish context was so valuable that the group endeavored to incorporate similar listening and learning opportunities while engaging the broader community in this work.

ENGAGING COMMUNITY The Commission realized from the beginning that its work could not be accomplished without listening to the experience, wisdom, and aspirations of the University community. Therefore, the group offered community engagement opportunities that included: • Presentations from the co-chairs or other Commission members to the: Fall Faculty Conference (August 2019), Staff Assembly Open Meeting (September 2019), Staff Assembly Executive Council (September 2019), Faculty Senate (Fall Semester 2019) • Three open listening and sharing sessions for students, faculty, staff, administrators, Board members and alumni • Additional small sessions as requested • The creation of a website (www.gonzaga.edu/commission) dedicated to the work of the Commission that included an online tool to submit feedback to the Commission

21 During the first open session the following structure was followed: 1. Land Acknowledgement, Prayer, Welcome and Ground Rules 2. Opening Remarks and Context 3. Introduction of the Commission Members 4. Conversation Circle #1 a. Introductions b. What led you to want to participate in this session today? c. What are your responses to the experiences and events of the last year? 5. “A Gathering of Awareness” by Fr. Pat Howell, S.J. 6. Short Break 7. Comments from Commission Members 8. “Tribal Perspectives” by Wendy Thompson 9. “Theological Perspectives” by Dr. B. Kevin Brown 10. Q&A with Commission Members 11. Conversation Circle #2 (30) a. What are your hopes for the Commission? b. Would you like to propose any specific recommendations? 12. Group Report-Out 13. Closing Remarks and Next Steps Smaller and shorter sessions mirrored the larger event but included only one or two informational presentations. The key purpose of each open listening and sharing session was to invite the community into the Commission’s experience and learning, and solicit feedback on three primary questions: 1) What are your hopes for the Commission? 2) Would you like to propose any specific recommendations? and 3) Is there anything else you would like to share with the Commission?

22 The Commission also attended and assisted in advertising various events: • With the guidance of Flannery Chair of Catholic Theology, Dr. John Sheveland, the Department of Religious Studies hosted two Flannery lectures that centered around the topic of abuse in the Catholic Church. In October 2019, Thomas P. Doyle, O.P. delivered the lecture, “What the Sexual Abuse Phenomenon has done to the Church,” and in February 2020 Dr. Jennifer Beste delivered “Envisioning a Just Response to the Catholic Clergy Abuse Crisis.” Dr. Sheveland also currently serves on the National Review Board of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. • The Office of Mission & Ministry collaborated with the Departments of Religious Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies, the Catholic Studies Program, and the Della Strada Jesuit Community to bring Dr. Lisa Cahill to deliver the lecture, “Power, Sex, and Violence: Where Do Catholics Go From Here?” in October 2019. • In September 2019, the University, through the leadership of Dr. Pavel Shlossberg (Associate Professor of Communication & Leadership Studies & Department Chair) and Dr. Rebecca Stephanis (Associate Professor of Spanish), hosted the Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous Peoples (ERIP) Conference, which did not directly address Catholic sexual abuse, but attended to intersecting issues of justice pertaining to Native persons and communities. - At the ERIP conference, a series of sessions, organized at the invitation of Dr. Pavel Shlossberg, called “Tribal Narratives” brought together Native peoples from the Coeur d’Alene, Spokane, and Salish & Kootenai tribal communities as participants. These sessions also welcomed members of the Gonzaga community. ■ Members of the Commission joined a session on Friday afternoon about the arrival of the Black Robes 10. Dinner on Friday was hosted by the Commission to provide an opportunity for Commission members to engage in informal conversations with tribal community members.

10 “Black Robes” is a moniker for Jesuits historically used by Native communities in the Inland Northwest dating back to a vision of Salish prophet Shining Shirt.

23 FORMING RECOMMENDATIONS In August 2019, the Commission had established enough context to identify tentative broad categories for recommendations. These categories were still ambiguous, and they included everything from immediate Commission responsibilities, such as communication with the community or support for upcoming campus programming, to longer-term aspirations for healing and reconciliation in broken relationships. These categories provided a helpful framework as the Commission began engaging the Gonzaga community, providing a sense of its current thinking and reflection.

As the Commission began collecting feedback from the community, it enlisted the support of a student intern, Ms. Elizabeth Ekman ’20, to pull together written feedback from the three primary listening sessions and organize that content into categories. This content, combined with the Commission’s own discernment through its conversation and learning, informed the refinement of categories in early 2020 that shaped the development of the Commission’s recommendations.

24 Reflections on the Work

25 The Commission embarked on a profound journey, one that was deeply challenging and full of meaning. The reflections below illustrate the complexity of the experience and provide needed context for the Commission’s recommendations.

THE COMPLEXITY OF THE COMMISSION’S CHARGE In the first meeting of the Commission, members received a charge from President McCulloh. The tangible objective was to identify, discuss, and make recommendations regarding concrete actions the University should take in response to sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. He provided further context, such as his hope that this work would animate and advance Gonzaga’s institutional mission. More specifically, he posed the question: How should a Catholic, Jesuit, and humanistic institution, drawing on the resources of these traditions, engage courageously in difficult conversations about what systemic abuse within the Church compels us to learn, to know, and to do? This work would necessarily build on the University mission to “foster a mature commitment to dignity of the human person, social justice, diversity, intercultural competence, global engagement, solidarity with the poor and vulnerable, and care for the planet” 11 in service to the common good. While this charge provided meaning and direction to the work, it left room for questions from Commission members: What kinds of recommendations should be crafted? To what should these recommendations respond? Was there enough time to accomplish the work? Would an ongoing Commission or another body be necessary to fulfill the broader aspirations implied in the charge or to implement forthcoming recommendations? How ought the Commission weigh not only the realities named by the Reveal report and the community’s reactions, but also the broader and intersecting patterns of abuse in the Church?

11 Gonzaga University Mission Statement, Adopted in 2013 and Modified in 2017, https://www.gonzaga.edu/about/our-mission-jesuit-values/mission-statement.

26 THE PROCESS Given this complexity, the Commission determined that it would require a thoughtful process. To address the ambiguity in the charge, the Commission focused first on establishing a shared understanding of context and vision. One element of this stage involved naming the adaptive nature of this discernment process that would require structure and the opportunity for insights to unfold and emerge. There was no manual to provide step-by- step instructions for accompanying the University community through this process. The group would have to remain humble, agile, and deeply attentive to one another and the Gonzaga community. Commission members would also need to strive to accomplish this work together, and this would require trust and rapport. In its second meeting, the Commission made space to listen to members, hearing their reasons for joining this effort as well as their frames of reference in beginning the work. This sharing and listening revealed a diversity of perspectives and strengths, and it also illuminated the various ways the broader community was interpreting the purpose of the Commission. This sharing revealed a common aspiration: to make this work meaningful. Each member articulated some reservation about joining the group, worrying about credibility and hoping the Commission would be more than a gimmick to make the University look better. Members therefore made a strong commitment that this process would be deeply real. Furthermore, the Commission sought to embody its hopes for the wider University community in its process. The group incorporated habits of praying and reflecting together. Each meeting began with an acknowledgement that Gonzaga University resides on the unceded

27 homelands of the Spokane Tribe. Members laughed with one another and cried; debated intensely and remained committed to relationship with one another. This commitment to relationship was especially significant, and most tested, when the Commission encountered the following tensions and questions at the heart of the work.

THE DESIRE FOR AN APOLOGY As the Commission was grappling with the ambiguity of its charge and establishing its way of proceeding, it confronted and wrestled with reactions of anger, shock, despair, betrayal, and sadness among members and within the broader Gonzaga community. The Commission encountered within itself and received indications from community members of a desire for clear acknowledgement of this pain. This desire prompted the Commission to reflect on and discuss a pivotal set of questions regarding what specifically ought to be acknowledged: Had something gone wrong in the community? If so, what specifically should be identified? Who was harmed by this wrong? Who was responsible? Was the University community waiting on an apology? If so, from whom? There was clearly shared anger and grief over the deep harms of sexual abuse, especially of children, and its coverup. There was agreement that such abuse and coverup is profoundly wrong, and widespread sentiment that various relationships and trust had been broken in the Gonzaga community. However, specific articulations voiced by community members revealed multiple circles of harm, of varying levels of severity: • Alaska Native women and girls abused and made to suffer by James Poole • Native communities who have experienced abuse as a tool of colonization, harming not only victim-survivors but also their families and communities • Communities of color and communities marked by poverty who have experienced Catholic sexual abuse as disproportionately harmful • Members of the University community, including students and alumni, who have felt violated by the decision of the Jesuit Province to house abusers in Bea House

28 • Members of the immediate community who have experienced and shared pain, sorrow and frustration about the sudden departure of certain Jesuits and/or those who have worried about the welfare of Jesuits and expressed concern that institutional responses and communications have created division between University and the Jesuit community • Members of the community who have expressed anger, disappointment, and/or sorrow about University responses to the Catholic sexual abuse phenomenon, including formal communications or gaps in communication, and the type and volume of institutional initiatives and programming to address various community concerns What the Commission discovered through conversation and reflection was a complex web of structural injustices, but also a deep desire among the community to confront the causes and the effects of sexual abuse, and to name more boldly both personal and shared complicity in systemic failures.

THE QUESTION OF INVESTIGATION Some members of the University community assumed that the Commission was established to be an investigative body and would be conducting interviews to determine culpability. This was never the charge of the Commission, though the task of establishing context necessarily included information gathering in some forms. In asking people and groups throughout the University community to provide a sense of their own experience and hopes for this work, the Commission encountered a fuller picture of the community’s collective awareness and experience.

WHO KNEW WHAT WHEN? This fuller picture revealed that community members had varying degrees of understanding of Gonzaga’s institutional history and identity, including the University’s relationship to the Society of Jesus. Some were more aware than others of the history of sexual abuse in the Province and the sending of credibly accused men to Bea House. This variation in awareness, combined with a desire for greater institutional transparency and communication, led

29 to a key takeaway: Gonzaga must become more intentional in owning and sharing the University’s story as well as navigating its relationship with the Society of Jesus.

THE QUESTION ABOUT INCLUSION OF SURVIVORS Many members of the Gonzaga community expressed hope that the Commission would center victim-survivors, and their voices and experiences, at the heart of its work. One question posed to the Commission asked whether any survivors had been included in the membership of the Commission. The Commission decided early in its process not to answer this question because of a belief that no survivors should be asked or required to disclose their experiences of abuse. However, the Commission did communicate that given the high rates of sexual abuse in society, there is always the possibility, even the likelihood, that we are already in the company of someone, or know someone, who has been sexually abused. The Commission also made a commitment to strive to honor and affirm survivors, and regularly raise visibility on reporting and support resources in the Gonzaga community and the Province. Throughout this journey, Commission members were humbled, awed, and inspired by how many community members shared their stories and how their perspectives strengthened this process. Our Commission stands with you, forever grateful for your courage.

HEALING AND RECONCILIATION As the Commission navigated complex, traumatic dimensions of sexual abuse and its personal, communal, and systemic effects, the group encountered important tensions and disagreements in discussions about healing. Many in the community voiced a desire to reach a place of healing and reconciliation personally, as a community, and with the Jesuits. However, there is a danger that the longing for reconciliation, healing, and forgiveness can move too quickly past the anger and lament that cry out against injustice and the clear recognition of the wrongs of sexual abuse. In such cases, reconciliation may remain shallow and leave injustice in place.

30 Consequently, reconciliation is only made possible with the establishment of justice, which requires actively seeking to dismantle systems of domination, abuse, and harm and building up new systems in their place. In moving toward this justice, truth-telling and accurate diagnosis of the harms that have taken place and the systemic causes of this sexual abuse may require anger. Such anger is not opposed to reconciliation, but a necessary step toward the re-establishment of a just community. It is the hope and goal of the Commission that the recommendations contained in this report can serve as the beginning of the restoration of renewed relationships rooted in justice.

MISSION The Commission encountered another tension that could be framed by the following question: Can a University call itself Jesuit if it is actively examining its relationship to both the Society of Jesus and the root causes and effects of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church? The Commission’s emphatic answer is: Yes. In fact, Gonzaga’s Jesuit, Catholic, and humanistic mission compels all of us to do so, shaping a courageous pursuit of truth and galvanizing action to tear down unjust structures and find new ways of being and doing that reflect God’s abundant love. This work is the embodiment of the second Universal Apostolic Preference of the Society of Jesus, “To walk with the poor, the outcasts of the world, those whose dignity has been violated, in a mission of reconciliation and justice.” Fr. Arturo Sosa, the current superior general of the Society of Jesus, articulated, in a July 2018 speech at the World Meeting of Universities entrusted to the Society of Jesus, the way in which Jesuit mission and commitments are embodied in universities. The university ought to be a “source of a reconciled life” that is oriented toward social justice. As he notes, the intellectual work of the university 1) analyzes the causes of suffering and injustice through teaching and research and 2) uses the insights of various disciplines to discover and propose remedies to systemic injustice.

31 Consequently, “the university becomes a project of social transformation to generate a full life.” The academic life of the Catholic and Jesuit university, shared not only by Jesuits or Catholics but among all who come together in a commitment to the humanistic ideal of justice and common good, must be at the service of social transformation toward the fullness of life toward all persons and creatures, especially the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized. In this way, we are called to educate professionals with a conscience who will become agents of this work. Gonzaga University cannot fulfill this mission without making it concrete. Those who have been sexually abused and the broader communities harmed by such abuse are among those whose dignity has been violated. And walking with those whose dignity has been violated requires action. As a Catholic university, Gonzaga must respond to the realities of abuse in the Church along with other Catholic universities and organizations throughout the country and world. This work is made even more pressing by the realities and harms that mark Gonzaga’s own community, reinforcing awareness that the institution must engage such instances of suffering from the particularity of its context. Gonzaga’s Catholic, Jesuit, and humanistic mission is made real by reckoning with this institutional experience and history in relation to sexual abuse perpetrated by Jesuits, including those who lived in Cardinal Bea House.

INTRODUCTION TO THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMISSION TO THE PRESIDENT The Commission was charged by President McCulloh to offer recommendations for a set of specific actions that the University should undertake in response to the Catholic sexual abuse crisis and Gonzaga’s institutional experience of it. Following processes of context gathering, ongoing discussion and debate, and hearing from the Gonzaga community, five main areas of consideration emerged: Academics, Memorials and Liturgies, Mission Identity, Policy and Procedure, and Tribal Relations. Subcommittees comprised of Commission members

32 met to advance conversation in each area, leading to the development of specific recommendations offered by the Commission. The Commission’s recommendations are organized according to these five areas. These recommendations respond directly to Gonzaga’s experience of the sexual abuse crisis as well as to the intersecting and related concerns that arose in our conversations and in the Gonzaga community. Where appropriate, the Commission takes note to build upon work already begun at Gonzaga, recommending that those who have already been working in specific areas be supported and empowered to continue their work. In other cases, the Commission recommends that Commission representation be included in future implementation of specific recommendations in order to bring the insights and background that shaped the recommendation.

33 Recommendations to the President

34 To ensure the successful implementation of approved recommendations, the Commission proposes that the president appoint the Commission co-chairs to oversee the progress of the working groups as well as updates to the Gonzaga community through the web resource.

ACADEMICS The Commission recognized that the charge to confront the realities of abuse in the Church as a University community requires attention from the University’s academic mission, which includes both education and research. • Commission a collaboratively developed project that tells the narratives and stories about Gonzaga University’s past, formation, identity, and mission. This work will necessarily include Jesuit and Native narratives and perspectives, seeking to include multiple narratives and perspectives, but not unify them into one, single narrative of Gonzaga’s history. - This project should be overseen by a working group that includes representation from the Office of Mission and Ministry and the Director of Tribal Relations (Ms. Wendy Thompson). • Invite the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition for a campus-wide and/or public event. Drawing on the expertise of those across the University and within the region, host follow-up multi- disciplinary panels and/or lectures about the intersection of the boarding schools, the Catholic Church in the U.S., and Catholic sexual abuse. - Establish a working group, with Commission representation, to oversee and organize these events. • Create an ongoing, robust Commission web resource that includes progress updates, academic and other sources, previous communications to the community, support resources for anyone who has suffered abuse or trauma, and new events, initiatives and activities. • Set aside at least $10,000 a year to fund faculty research addressing issues related to sexual assault in the Catholic Church directly. This fund should be named “Social Justice & the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis.” - This fund could be used to organize reading groups, independent research, or even bringing relevant scholars to campus for public talks

35 and/or collaborative engagement. It ought to be accessible through a clearly outlined application process. • Develop concrete ways to increase attention to the undergirding features (colonization, sexual violence, masculinity, dominative power systems, trauma) of the Catholic abuse crisis across University curricula, drawing on and reinforcing efforts already underway in the University, without necessarily including direct material on the issue of the Catholic sexual abuse crisis. - Create a new academic undergraduate course, with a Social Justice designation, to specifically address these undergirding features of the Catholic sexual abuse crisis. The course should be named, “Social Justice and the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis,” and it will identify the specific ways the structural evils of the aforementioned “undergirding features” contributed to both the abuse and the cover-up, making connections with similar structural evils in other institutions and identifying corrective strategies to address these problems.

MEMORIALS AND LITURGIES The Commission noted that in the history of attention to Catholic sexual abuse in the United States, awareness and focused attention tends to rise and fall in waves. The Commission was committed to the need for ongoing intentionality of attention to these realities in order to be honest about the history of abuse and to work toward transformation of society and Church. • Establish a permanent memorial to honor all those affected by Catholic sexual abuse, including those abused by Jesuits, and specifically those abused by Jesuits who were later housed in Cardinal Bea house living on safety plans. Such a memorial would also prompt the community to confront personal and communal active and passive participation in structural injustices. - The Commission was particularly drawn to the idea of a labyrinth near the Jundt Art Museum, which in addition to providing a permanent means of honoring and remembering, would also serve to provide a

36 resource of active healing and nourishment for the greater Gonzaga community. - Establish a working group, with Commission representation, to explore and implement the establishment of such a memorial. • Offer an annual liturgy or ritual of lament, drawing on the resources of the Catholic, Jesuit, and humanistic traditions, to acknowledge the various failings of the community and give voice to desires to live more fully into the bold aspirations of the University mission. - This effort should also include adopting a more intentionally victim- facing approach into regular community gatherings and liturgical offerings.

MISSION IDENTITY The Commission affirmed that Gonzaga’s identity as a Sponsored Work of the Society of Jesus requires not only the manifestation of Ignatian values within the University but also a living partnership with Jesuits rooted in right relationship and shared priorities. • Engage in discussion with local and Province Jesuit leadership about Bea House that may reimagine it as a space for future activities and works in service to the Jesuit mission in the University and region. • Offer an annual Town Hall to discuss Gonzaga’s mission and Jesuit, Catholic, and humanistic identity in a changing context. • Work with leadership of the U.S. Jesuits West Province to offer a pastoral response and acknowledgement to members of the Gonzaga University community who have articulated deep pain and frustration in response to the phenomenon of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and who have grieved fractures in trust and relationship between the University and the Society of Jesus. • Work with leadership of the U.S. Jesuits West Province in order to foster greater relationship, communication, and collaboration between Gonzaga University and the Society of Jesus.

37 POLICY AND PROCEDURE The Commission recognized that living into shared mission aspirations requires a strong foundation of policy, protocol, and structure to guide ways of being, working, learning, and living together as a community. These policies and protocols should be made concrete through consistent application and enforcement. • Building on commitments from President McCulloh and leadership from the Jesuits West Province that no Jesuits with credible accusations will be missioned to Gonzaga, develop clear and formalized protocols regarding the assignment and movement of Jesuits to Gonzaga University. - These protocols should be developed with representation from the Society of Jesus and Gonzaga University. - Protocols should include the development of clear communication between the University and Society of Jesus, especially in order to clearly answer what conditions would need to be satisfied for a Jesuit with allegations that have been deemed not credible to be able to be considered for assignment to Gonzaga University. - Ensure open and clear communication between the Jesuit community and Gonzaga University regarding who is living in or visiting the Della Strada Jesuit Community in order to ensure formalized protocols are being followed. • Review and enhance policies regarding the protection of all vulnerable persons on Gonzaga’s campus. - Publicly explicate campus policies and procedures regarding minors. • Within a university, attention to realities of sexual assault necessarily bring to the fore the pervasive problem of sexual assault on college campuses. Building on the work of the Title IX Steering Committee, revisit the University’s approach to sexual assault on campus, including Title IX procedures as well as a renewed investment in the prevention of sexual assault and intimate partner violence on campus. - This work ought to include investigation into the most up-to-date studies about sexual assault and violence on college campuses.

38 • Communicate formally a process by which the institution reviews and discerns appropriate responses to University spaces, items, and funds named for persons who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse or other forms of harm, or whose behavior is determined to be in conflict with an institutional commitment to human dignity. - Establish a working group, with Commission representation, to guide this work.

TRIBAL RELATIONS The Commission took seriously that, in Gonzaga’s regional context, the history of Catholic sexual abuse has disproportionately harmed Native communities. As such, the Commission paid specific attention to Catholic sexual abuse within Native communities, the history of Catholic boarding schools for Native children, the history of Catholic participation in colonization in the U.S. and in this region, and the current University relationship with local Tribal communities. • Invite the University community to come together to participate in an open forum with institutional leadership. This forum would privilege the voices, concerns, and wisdom of Native students. This forum is a first step in a longer process of intentional relationship building and enhanced support for Native students at Gonzaga. • Gonzaga University has a distinctive relationship to Native students that brings with it distinctive responsibilities. Gonzaga occupies the unceded lands of the Spokane Tribe of Indians. Additionally, Fr. , remembered as the founder of Gonzaga, is said to have intended for Gonzaga to educate Native boys. When Father Joset arrived with several Native children on the first day of school, they were not permitted to enroll; they were told the school was for “American” boys. Although his vision would have included a Euro-centric education, Fr. Cataldo’s commitment to Native students ought to be renewed in several ways. - Fund scholarships for Native students in conjunction with developing structures for support during their time at Gonzaga University.

39 - Given the ongoing need for support for Native students, revisit the formation and resourcing of the Center for American Indian Studies (“The House”). This work should be done with the intention of strengthening ongoing support of a permanent space that is protected for Native students to find community together at Gonzaga, in order that they may be seen, heard, and understood in a predominately white University context. ■ In consultation with Native students and the Director of Tribal Relations, rename the space. ■ Form an advising board of current Native students and Native alumni to offer their experiences and ongoing recommendations about support for Native students. • Finalize the work, under the guidance of Gonzaga’s Director of Tribal Relations (Ms. Wendy Thompson), to rewrite the Gonzaga Land Acknowledgement in consultation with local Tribal communities. • In 2019, the Society of Jesus moved the archives of the former Oregon Province from Gonzaga University to a centralized location with all U.S. Jesuit archives at St. Louis University. These archives include records of Native languages and genealogy that are otherwise lost due to the influence of colonization. Because of the importance of these archives to local Tribal communities and their connection to Gonzaga, a working group, involving Commission members, should be formed to engage in ongoing work to ensure access of Tribal communities and the Gonzaga community to the Jesuit archives, with particular attention to the preservation of Native languages. Such work should be supported by the following: - Recommended membership includes the Director of Tribal Relations (Ms. Wendy Thompson), the Dean of Foley Library (Dr. Paul Bracke), the Director of the Jesuit Archives and Research Center (Mr. David Miros), representatives from the Salish Language Group, other Tribal community representation as discerned among the working group, and U.S. Jesuits West Province leadership.

40 ■ Extend an invitation to Mr. Miros to come to Gonzaga to collaborate on the work for the archives and for a meeting with the Salish Language Group. - In consultation with the Dean of Foley Library, Dr. Bracke, develop a Post-Doctoral position for a graduate from the University of Arizona’s Knowledge River Doctoral Program in the School of Information to aid in the archival work. • Develop an installation or display to commemorate Gonzaga’s history and ongoing relationship with Native communities in the region. Such a display should be on the first floor of College Hall to mark the University’s commitment, either near or in the place of the display of the Board of Trustees. - Establish a working group, with Commission membership, to oversee the development of this display.

41 Appendix

42 TIMELINE OF THE COMMISSION April 15, 2019 Announcement of the Formation of a University Commission

May 29, 2019 Charging Meeting for the University Commission

June 26, 2019 Commission Meeting

July 10-11, 2019 Commission Retreat

July 22, 2019 Update from the President and Announcement of Commission Membership Commission Meeting

August 15, 2019 Commission Meeting

August 25, 2019 Commission Meeting

September 9, 2019 Co-Chairs Meeting with Staff Assembly Executive Council

September 13, 2019 ERIP Conference Sessions: “Tribal Perspectives on the Black Robes” Commission Dinner with Tribal Members

September 27, 2019 Commission Meeting

October 13, 2019 “Meet the Commission” Open Listening and Learning Session #1

43 October 24, 2019 “Meet the Commission” Open Listening and Learning Session #2

November 4, 2019 “Meet the Commission” Open Listening and Learning Session #3

November 20, 2019 Commission Meeting

December 4, 2019 Commission Meeting Conversation with Members of the Della Strada Jesuit Community

December 12, 2019 Update from the Co-Chairs to the University Community

December 13, 2019 Commission Meeting

January 15, 2020 Commission Meeting

January 15-February 28, 2020 Subcommittee Meetings

February 28, 2020 Commission Meeting

May 26, 2020 Update from the Co-Chairs to the University Community

June 25, 2020 Commission Meeting

August 10, 2020 Closing Commission Meeting

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